India

Belgian Jesuit's language legacy continues in India

The missionary, an expert on the story of Hindu god Rama, is considered India's most notable Christian Hindi scholar

A bust of Belgian Jesuit missionary Father Camille Bulcke (1909-82) stands in the campus of St. Xavier's College in Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand state in eastern India. (Photo supplied)

By Joe Palathunkal

Published: November 18, 2019 03:19 AM GMT

Updated: November 18, 2019 03:23 AM GMT

Camille Bulcke may be unfamiliar in his native Belgium but more than a century after his birth, he continues to be acclaimed for his Hindi scholarship in distant India.

Jesuit Father Bulcke’s 110th birth anniversary passed off without public celebrations on Sept. 1 in India, where he came to be known as a literary figure during his 48-year missionary life.

“By his research and writings he won for himself a position of eminence in the literary circles of India and was a popular figure in the universities and colleges,” wrote India’s then-popular newspaper Statesman of his death on Aug. 17, 1982.

The Belgian landed in India in 1935, at the age of 26, armed with a civil engineering degree from Louvain. Besides English and his native languages of French and Flemish, he also knew Latin, Greek and German.

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